Hello,

Who doesn’t like to hear the words, “I am so proud of you!” For my friend Mallika’s birthday, I made her this self-affirming piece to read to herself everyday.

Here’s me bearing the gift at the Impressionist exhibit at the de Young Museum on her birthday (which was great!) and here it is the next day hanging at her desk at work.

Props to Have Gun, Will Travel on their award from American Songwriter and props to me for getting the presentation right. The article reads:

“This month’s winner in the Conceptualization category was a no-brainer: Bradenton, Florida’s very own Have Gun, Will Travel. Their handsome sophomore effort, Postcards From The Friendly City (Suburban Home) is almost as notable for its ingenious design and packaging as its organic, infectious brand of Americana pop. We here at UTR are big fans of bands that claim their hometowns with pride and, like the finest local produce, HGWT’s music has a refreshing immediacy to it that can only come from an innate connection with one’s native environment. Like a Sunshine State-sanctioned answer to New York’s Fountains of Wayne, the band expertly canonizes the displacement of suburban existence on such gems as “Land Of The Living” (We belong to the land of the living/ but we don’t live there anymore) and conjures up a disturbingly cheery dystopia in “Maritime Rag” and the aching “Salad Days.” And, really, in these days of managed expectations and digital-only releases, not enough can be said about the great lyric insert in the album package, cleverly reproduced to look like a folded miniature copy of the Bradenton Chronicle from 1955. Excellent work, fellows.”

Source: www.americansongwriter.com

Made with Gawker.

Does anyone else write frustrated/angry emails that you know you probably won’t send? I’ve written a few in my life, and admittedly, one today. After that, I did this painting:

You guys remember that screamo band, Grade (like, circa ’99)? I think your friend Matt was into them. Anyway, if you don’t know Grade, don’t bother, but this one came on iTunes while I was emo-painting and I was taken back to high school. YEAH MAN, LIKE, I SO IDENTIFY TO THAT.

“This is a time in my life where everything is falling apart,
and at the same time it’s all coming together.”
— Grade; A Year in the Past, Forever in the Future

For Virna.